Seriously what makes Ronald Reagan a legend to repubs?

[Hawaiian Punch]

Serious question. Im curious what was it about him that caused him to do things like win 49 of 50 states in 1984. Was it because by the time of the second elections we were coming out of a recession? But didn't we go back into a second recession by the end of his second term? Why was the southern strategy so successful for his campaign but backfires now? Maybe this is ramblings from the liberal media, but I offer this excerpt:

The Secrets of Reagan's Success - TIME

His big 1981 tax cut was followed by two years of large, if undramatized, tax increases. He didn't shrink the size of the government (Bill Clinton was the only recent President to do that). Reagan was a champion of the religious right, but rarely attended church and never paid much more than lip service to the right-to-life movement. He was a critic of government waste, but routinely lavished more money on the military than the Pentagon asked for

Rather than bash his legacy I'm curious what were the causes of his success. After all another republican president came after him.

 

[Slystallion]

Biased article the size of the tax cuts dwarfed the small tax increases. Considering he had a democrat congress and got so much passed in spite of that makes him great. Therefore the debt cutting was impossible with democrat congress.

Was able to do much more with an opposing congress than your boy Obama.

He got us out of an incredibly bad recession and forced soviets to go broke.

The small recession bush Sr had was the smallest recession in like 100 years. There will always be recessions the constant is that we usually are growing for population reasons alone.

 

[Street Knowledge]

1. His swag and catchphrases
2. "Ending" the Cold War
3. The first one to do the trickle down crap
4. And alot of these nikkaz BECAME(and stayed) republicans because of Reagan.


http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/02/05/142288/reagan-centennial/?mobile=wp

 

[Good Guy Guevara]

1. His swag and catchphrases
2. "Ending" the Cold War
3. The first one to do the trickle down crap
4. And alot of these nikkaz BECAME(and stayed) republicans because of Reagan.


10 Things Conservatives Don't Want You To Know About Ronald Reagan | ThinkProgress

He more so made southern Democrats who were still butt hurt from the Civil Rights Act switch party affiliation.

 

[Jx2]

Biased article the size of the tax cuts dwarfed the small tax increases. Considering he had a democrat congress and got so much passed in spite of that makes him great. Therefore the debt cutting was impossible with democrat congress.

Was able to do much more with an opposing congress than your boy Obama.

He got us out of an incredibly bad recession and forced soviets to go broke.

The small recession bush Sr had was the smallest recession in like 100 years. There will always be recessions the constant is that we usually are growing for population reasons alone.

ahem...
"The problem, very simply, is that filibusters have exploded in the Senate. It was once a rare procedure used to block legislation only in cases where the minority was intensely opposed. But then, in 1993, minority Republicans started using it against every major initiative President Bill Clinton proposed; and by 2009 Republicans were deploying it all the time."

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/17/nows_the_time_to_fix_the_filibuster/

 

[feelosofer]

I was around in the Reagan years. Dude had shyt policies, but he was charismatic as hell. I swear he could sell you a shyt sandwich for top dollar and convince you to take a bite. Ronald Reagan was respected by Democrats as well as Republicans but even though that era was a dark time for Blacks. Most upper middle whites would argue that his presidency was when they were at their most successful. His freemarket economic policies were instrumental to building a lot of business, but it also contributed to the sort of greed that Wall Street has become known for. He also destroyed a lot of the veteran medical centers, leaving us with streets filled with mentally ill homeless people who became even worse due to the crack epidemic, plus he was responsible for that nasty recession in the mid 80's.

You know what I'm rambling, the only people who think he is a legend are racists and Wall Street jerk-offs who made their fortunes in that time period and poor Republicans who just didn't know any better. Reagan sucked.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

1. His acting ability was able to assuage the collective white American ego after Vietnam.
2. Outstanding delivery of anecdotal evidence to support his bullshyt policies made for great talking points.
3. A nominal speech in front of the Berlin Wall that was easily politicized into an actual significant moment.
4. He was a talking point machine. So much of his ability used easiliy remembered phrases to push bad policy.

His wife also supposedly gave amazing blowjays!

The Weather Up Here: Nancy Reagan: Queen of the Hollywood Blow Job!

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

Nancy fell off.

Nancy Reagan slips and falls on way to Tea Party favourite Marco Rubio's speech | Mail Online

 

[Jello Biafra]

I have always thought Reagan's mystique with Republicans was based almost entirely off of the fact that he was a successful 2-term President for the GOP after the embarrassment of the Nixon administration and the Ford presidency.
And then over the years the older Republicans have gassed him up because they were desperate to have their own version of a beloved and revered President like the Dems had with JFK.

 

[Jx2]

I have always thought Reagan's mystique with Republicans was based almost entirely off of the fact that he was a successful 2-term President for the GOP after the embarrassment of the Nixon administration and the Ford presidency.
And then over the years the older Republicans have gassed him up because they were desperate to have their own version of a beloved and revered President like the Dems had with JFK.

This. Perception is everything and when you have repubs looking in their rearview who do they see:

2 term Bush jr.,

1 term Bush senior,

and then Reagan. Makes him look borderline just by comparison without even delving into his ability to govern.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

Biased article the size of the tax cuts dwarfed the small tax increases. Considering he had a democrat congress and got so much passed in spite of that makes him great. Therefore the debt cutting was impossible with democrat congress.

Was able to do much more with an opposing congress than your boy Obama.

He got us out of an incredibly bad recession and forced soviets to go broke.

The small recession bush Sr had was the smallest recession in like 100 years. There will always be recessions the constant is that we usually are growing for population reasons alone.

1. Reagan's economic policies led to a quadrupling of the deficit and it's not because of the Democratic congress preventing him from "starving the beast." He didn't want to make huge entitlement cuts proportional to rate cuts and he drastically increased military spending. He thought massive top marginal rate cuts would lead to more revenue and didn't work that way.

2. Paul Volcker slashing interest rates and expanding the money supply after contacting it to tackle inflation in the late 70's had much more to do with ending the recession than Reagan's fiscal policies.

3. The notion that Reagan defeated the USSR by outspending it simply isn't true. The Soviet model bankrupted itself through economic mismanagement and was on the way out. The Trilateral Commission (no tinfoil) concluded as early as 1972 I believe that the Soviets were on their way out and couldn't sustain themselves and it was just a matter of time. That's why Gorbachev started to liberalize their policies through glasnost and perestroika because he was just trying to soften the fall. The USSR would've ended up in the bushes no matter who was President. Reagan was just lucky enough to be there at the right time like Clinton was during the tech boom and Greenspan's "make it rain" monetary policy.

 

[cashews]

Who else are they gonna root for? Nixon? Eisenhower was probably the last great Republican president, but he wouldn't make it past the primaries today.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

ahem...
"The problem, very simply, is that filibusters have exploded in the Senate. It was once a rare procedure used to block legislation only in cases where the minority was intensely opposed. But then, in 1993, minority Republicans started using it against every major initiative President Bill Clinton proposed; and by 2009 Republicans were deploying it all the time."

Now’s the time to fix the filibuster - Salon.com

Yup. Tip O'Neal and Reagan were homies. There was barely any daylight between them. It's nothing like the political climate today.

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

Who else are they gonna root for? Nixon? Eisenhower was probably the last great Republican president, but he wouldn't make it past the primaries today.

Eisenhower may be the best prez in modern history, and certainly of the repubs. He is the one that should be praised. Unfortunately he shyt on the gop and has quotes that prevent him from being trumpeted. His exit speech

I think he would have won the past election against obama. Eisenhower was a true moderate and who would be better to protect american interests with modern tech and diplomatic power than eisenhower?

Eisenhower vs obama on foreign policy in debates would be crack

 

[NkrumahWasRight Is Wrong]

Reagans star started shining more after the bush 2 failed. Bush 1 was seen as a continuation of reagan and he failed miserably. So from clinton thru bush 2 reagan had a stale legacy, but now, with bush failing, the economy being shyt and obama being so charismatic, they hearken back to reagan to combat this.

Reagan brokered peace with ussr thru its downfall- common perception
Reagan had a decent economy - common perception
Reagan had charisma - common perception
Reagan was fairly recent - fact

So as u can see, the gop consciously tries to get voters to think their politicians are more "like that" than like bush, even if its an illusion.

Fact is, reagan was a middle of the road prez. Not great, not terrible. Maybe slightly more good than bad. But that is a vast improvement from every modern repub aside from eisenhower